I was born to parents who collected Star Wars merchandise and grew up watching them go gaga over people like Indiana Jones, Michael Jackson and the likes.

When I was in my teens, my parents didn’t stop me from collecting Mighty Ducks jerseys, they didn’t stop my sisters and I whenever we would ask for money for concert tickets; my 16-year-old self had wall to wall posters of movies in my room; I am one of the biggest basketball fans you could ever know.

I have been part of the Harry Potter fandom for the past 13 plus years and in terms of phenomenal fans no one is bigger than the Harry Potter fandom —- that said, in the mere two months or so that I have been part of the KathNiel fandom I can see the same level of demand and anticipation for anything Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo as that of any new Harry Potter book release or movie premiere.

THE MASS HYSTERIA

No phenomenon would be without this.

It is a prerequisite for anything or anyone to be dubbed as such.

I’ve seen these with Harry Potter, with the Twilight movies (albeit unwillingly), with Justin Beiber (also unwillingly) and One Direction.

I wasn’t there when the KathNiel fever started, but I can feel impact of their fame even now.

As any new fan, you’d watch older clips on YouTube — I was and still is shocked that KathNiel commands the same mass hysteria as that of those from the Harry Potter stars, One Direction and Justin Beiber.

It’s not even the sheer amount of people at the venues, but the dedication of those fans to be there.

They’re not simply there to watch — they’re there because being fans of KathNiel is a part of them.

MEDIA DEMAND

Daniel and Kath, individually and as a pair, have commanded the media to notice.

No phenomenon is without media demand.

In the last few months alone, how many magazine covers did they have? How many new endorsements did they close?

During the Star Magic Ball last night, many tweeted that when they stepped on the red carpet, pandemonium followed — in the pictures I saw, it was like a Hollywood movie premiere: reporters pushing, cameras flashing incessantly, people calling out their names, fans screaming.

They have fan pictures from airports, on location shoots — even celebrities are starting to be more vocal of being their fans, with fan moment pictures to boot.

That is demand.

UNEXPLAINED CHARISMA

In less than two years, KathNiel has skyrocketed to superstardom — why?

Charisma.

They have the unexplained kind.

The kind that you cannot articulately express.

The kind that differs from one person to the next.

The kind that even when it’s uttered, it’s not the complete answer.

UBIQUITOUSLY ENIGMATIC

I have never in my life seen any local pairing exude this quality: you see them, you read all of their interviews, watch all their shows, but as much as you hear and read about them, there’s still something that’s left as a mystery.

That’s why people keep coming back.

We all know they’re keeping something only the two of them know — and we all want to find out what it is.

Alas, it will, like their charm, will be left unknown.

PHENOMENON

The best things are those which are unplanned, orthodox and genuine.

That’s why it’s dubbed as phenomenon — because no one saw it coming.

And to this, no one saw how big KathNiel would be two years ago.

In that short amount of time, their accomplishments are mind-boggling.

We live in a KathNiel world because their mere presence demands us to look.

We live in a KathNiel world because even if you’re not part of their target audience you’d still feel the impact of their footsteps.

We live in a KathNiel world because some sounds cannot be ignored.

We live in a KathNiel world because we cannot get enough, because we demand to know more; we want to know their lives, we want to peak into their thoughts.

We live in a KathNiel world because if a phenomenon is able to make better people of its fandom, then it’s a world worth living in.

In an interview with Push.com.ph, Dominic Roque shared that sports is a big part of his life. “I’m into fitness. I play badminton and boxing. Mahilig din ako sumali sa mga run.” The young actor was spotted during Got To Believe’s fun run. “Nandito ako of course as part of ABS, and para i-support din si Daniel (Padilla) and Kathryn (Bernardo) for Got to Believe,” he said.

Since he’s into sports, he did not hesitate to join the fun run, especially since he’s friends with Daniel and Kathryn. “Friends ako with Daniel and Kathryn. We’re even doing a movie for MMFF (Metro Manila Film Fest) this December,” he relayed.

On the role that he would be portraying in the upcoming movie, he shared, “Best friend ako [ng character ni] Daniel dito, barkada kami so ako ‘yung best friend niya na taga-kalma sa kanya pag nag-iinit ulo niya,” he relayed.

MANILA -- ABS-CBN teen sensations Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla topped the list of love teams featured in fan-fiction on Wattpad, an online community for discovering and sharing stories.

"There's a huge fan base for KathNiel on Wattpad," Kristel Tan, country manager for Wattpad, revealed during the opening of the Manila International Book Fair on Wednesday. "There are 2,500 stories on them alone."

Tan also reported that the love tean of Nash Aguas and Sharlene San Pedro, or NashLene, "is also among the top-rating fanfic loveteams on the site."

Wattpad has 25 million unique monthly users, 20% of which are Filipinos.

"The Philippines is our No. 2 market, right after the US. There are between 300,000 to 400,000 works in Filipino uploaded on the site," reported Wattpad co-founder Allen Lau.

A number of Filipino users whose stories first appeared on Wattpad have also been picked up by publishers and are now selling well in bookstores, including "Diary ng Panget" by HaveYouSeenThisGirl (PSICOM) and "She's Dating the Gangster" by Bianca B. Bernardino (Summit).

Recognizing their growing Filipino market, the Wattpad team is in the Philippines to join the book fair at the SMX Convention Center and meet their readers for the first time.

Lau is scheduled to give a talk on "How we amassed 300,000 fans and 100 million reads" on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at the stage area.

The event also features a meet and greet with Wattpad’s hottest young writers, including, Denny (HaveYouSeenThisGirL), Louisse (fallenbabybubu), Ciara (seeyara), Janelle (greenwriter) and Ate Casper (mercy_jhigz).